Warren Calls on Republicans to End Block of Consumer Agency Vote

Elizabeth Warren called on her
Senate colleagues to end their effort to block a vote on
President Barack Obama’s nomination of Richard Cordray to head
the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

“It’s time for the United States Senate to give Rich
Cordray an up-or-a-down vote,” Warren, a Democrat from
Massachusetts, told reporters in a news conference today. “If
there are senators who want to vote no, let them vote no and
explain that to the American people.”

Senator Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat, said Democrats
would turn up the pressure on Republicans to allow a vote by
seeking to persuade voters that the bureau, a centerpiece of the
2010 Dodd-Frank Act, is needed to protect consumers from the
kind of abusive financial products that contributed to the 2008
economic crisis.

The consumer bureau is “being undermined, throttled, cut
back” by Republican opposition, Reed said. “And if we can get
that word out, the pressure will build. Ultimately, one of the
virtues of this country is that we do respond to the public.
That’s what caused Dodd-Frank to pass.”

Warren was passed over to be the first director of the
bureau even though she conceived it as a Harvard University
professor and organized it as a White House adviser. Instead,
Obama nominated Cordray, her enforcement director. Warren ran
for Senate from Massachusetts and won.

Vote Blocked

Although Cordray can be confirmed by majority vote, a
minority of 40 can block an agreement to hold the vote in the
100-member chamber.

Senate Republicans have blocked a vote on his nomination,
arguing that the director has too much power and should be
replaced by a five-member commission. To break the stalemate,
Obama installed Cordray as director in January 2012 using a
recess appointment.

A federal court ruling last month overturned the validity
of three recess appointments made at the same time as Cordray,
making him vulnerable to a similar legal challenge.

Obama renominated Cordray to the directorship on Jan. 24.
On Feb. 1, a group of 43 Republican senators said they would
continue to block any nominee to the post of CFPB director
without changes to the structure and funding of the agency.

In the news conference, Warren dismissed the Republican
demand that the consumer bureau director’s post be replaced with
a five-member commission.

“Trying to get five appointments through is not somehow
easier than getting one appointment through,” Warren said. “I
did the math.”

She said that the stalemate has increased uncertainty for
banks and consumers, including over regulations on mortgages the
agency has recently issued.

“Our marketplace needs certainty,” Warren said. “If
there is a doubt about whether or not the consumer agency can
issue those rules, the banks are in a position of great
uncertainty.”